Curator of Halifax's Army Museum retires after 9-year 'labour of love'

Ken Hynes describes the Army Museum as the "soul of a nation, in the heart of the city," and for the last nine years, the retired soldierhas put his heart and soul into preservingthe past as curator of the Halifax collection.

Now Hynes is preparing toretire at the end of July from the museum, which is dedicated to people who servedon and off the battlefield.

"It's been a labour of love,"saysHynes."We owe it to them to preserve and protect their memories and to commemorate the service and sacrifice given by them for all of us."

Hynesgrew up in Dartmouth and joined the army in 1972, whichpaid for his education at SaintMary's University.

His career in the Royal Canadian Artillery took him around the world. He retired as a major in 2002 after 30 years of service. He returnedto Halifaxand took on a new role,as curator at the Army Museum in Citadel Hill,where he would walk literally in the footsteps of his grandfather, Cpl. Fletcher Bartlett.

Bartlett served within the walls of the Halifax Citadel at the beginning of the First World War, when it was an active military base and not the National Historic Site it is today.

"He was here for the Halifax Explosion, standing right over there," Hynes said, indicating the main courtyard. His grandfather told him exactly where he was when he feltthe full force of the Halifax Explosion loudly rush over the citadel.

"I feel quite close to him when I'm here and I think of him quite often. It keeps his memory alive for me and the memories of those he served with and his comrades who spent days after the explosion recovering dead bodies and burying them and saving people from the rubble of the explosion.

"It was he who encouraged me and motivated me to become a soldier. And the rest, as they say, is history."

Hynes sayshe has made it his personal mission to ensure thestories of soldiers and "the human cost of conflict over a century" arepresented honestly at the museum, from Canadian soldiers who lost their lives in the First World War, the Second World War andthe Korean War, tothe mission in Afghanistan and peace operations.

Part of telling the fullstoryis reckoning with the military's history of discriminationagainst Indigenous and Black soldiers, he says, and the treatment of women in the male-dominated Canadian Armed Forces.

Black soldiers foughtfor the right to fight during the First World War, but first had tobattle "a huge amount of institutional racism, societal racism, individual racism," says Hynes, pausing at a display honouring Black personnel.

"Their stories need to be told as well."

Another exhibit is a tribute to Hynes's one-time drill sergeant, Cyril Clayton,who served with the Black Watchthe oldestHighland regiment in Canada and the Royal Canadian Regiment.

Hynes admits being terrified of Clayton during basic training, but says the drill sergeant, whom he describes as "a true leader who continues to give back,"became the biggest mentor of his career.

"He taught me everything worthwhile knowing as a soldier," says Hynes. "Before I'd do anything,[I'd ask] 'What would he do?' And so it's very personal for me."

As the caretaker of military history, he feels responsible forexpressing thehuman toll of war,from those who paid the ultimate price to those who returned home forever changed.

He says"the fight for freedom, democracy, truth and justice is worth it every time."

Once retired, Hynesplans to createa bookon the history of the military in Nova Scotia from the perspective of soldiers.